John Ridley, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “12 Years a Slave” continues to tackle subjects that are relevant to today’s America. The unstoppable Ridley is now working on a comic book sequel, “The American Way: Those Above and Those Below.”

Episode 3: Needle | KCET

Episode 3: Needle

Vireo escapes from her room, but is caught by her mother, the doctor, and his assistant Raphael.

Featuring

Vijay Gupta, violin; Bridget Kibbey, harp; Joshua Roman, cello

(Lights up, and Vireo is running along an iron fence. Mother, and the Doctor dressed as a Priest are in pursuit. All run in the stutter of shadows thrown by the bars. The Doctor carries a torch.)

MOTHER
Come home, Vireo. Don’t be afraid.

(Vireo is cornered; she grips the fence tightly. The doctor pulls the mother aside.)

DOCTOR
Let me talk to her alone.

MOTHER
Let’s both – As you see fit.

(The Doctor approaches her carefully.)

DOCTOR
Why are you trying to hide?

VIREO
You are hurting me more than you know.

DOCTOR
It’s all been worked out carefully. We have it all worked out. Wee wee wee, all the way home.

(Pulling her fingers from the bars.)

Resign – Why are you frightened? I’ve never been as scared as you are now. Candy Your mouth will be full of candy any shape you want it poured. Keep a peppermint under your tongue. Your mother will be right there too.

(He is working her down the fence, one bar at a time.)

VIREO
I said the words. I prayed.

MOTHER
We have it all worked out.

DOCTOR
Don’t explain. You lose me.

VIREO
I said the name of Jesus –

MOTHER
Your mother will be right there. Your mother will be right there.

DOCTOR
Your mother will be right there. Your mother will be right there too.

VIREO
900 times – And here I am now.

DOCTOR
You are home now.

(The scene repeats as a more formal song. The Doctor, Vireo, and Mother overlap.)

DOCTOR
What can I do
What can be done
What can you do
What have you done
Put a peppermint under your tongue

Go a little further
I’ll see you when I get there
The birds are crying bloody murder
They suture empty air

Come a little further
You’re very nearly there
Your hurt is crying for a suture
You concentrate on empty air

Help me understand your impossibles
When you make the impossible
Something that can be done
You wound it. I want to know

What you’ve done
What the savor of this new language is
Delicious on your tongue

MOTHER
It’s all been worked out carefully
We have it all worked out
Wee wee wee all the way home
Resign
I am right here with you

VIREO
I said the words
I prayed
I said the name of Jesus 900 times
And here I am now

MOTHER
You are here now.

(The fence is gone, but Vireo stands face forward with her hands in fists, as if she were still holding on. Pernette appears, only a face.)

DOCTOR(To Mother.)

The bars are gone but the rigor remains.

(He loosens Vireo’s dress.)

PERNETTE
The doctor has a long silver needle inside his jacket. When he takes it out, it sings:

To find the mark of Satan
You test her skin with needles
For a spot that feels
Nothing

(There is a needle, but it isn’t literally represented. Each touch of the doctor’s fingertips is a piercing. Pernette disappears and the process of examination begins; Vireo’s speech is conditioned by the peppermint under her tongue.)

Vireo has escaped from her room and into an abandoned warehouse. She pursued by the Doctor and Mother, who are now trying to convince her to come with them for treatment. Vireo has a tentative hold on reality and she slips in and out of time. Her 16th-century religious beliefs seem to run up against the 19th-century psychoanalysis that the Doctor is proposing. Even the Doctor and Mother seem to slip in and out of time now, bringing their sense of reality into question. The Doctor eventually traps Vireo and takes her back to his office for further testing.

Full Episodes

A young girl appears onstage as if shoved into existence. As she wanders, the world shifts around her, catapulting her through time and space to 19th-century Vienna, 20th-century Germany and 21st-century America. She collapses, hearing voices and visions.

Clips & Segments

The eponymous heroine Vireo, played by soprano Rowen Sabala, is a fourteen-year- old girl genius entangled in the historic obsession with female visionaries, as witch-hunters, early psychiatrists, and modern artists have defined them

Initially inspired by composer Lisa Bielawa's senior essay on the same subject, "Vireo" explores the history of the treatment of young women through song and symbols. Take a look at seven symbols inside "Vireo."

Upcoming Airdates

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Season 9, Episode 4

This look at Los Angeles’ Olvera Street is part-history lesson and part-immersion in stereotype of the birthplace of Los Angeles. Emmy® award-winning journalist, author and musician Rubén Martínez, explores the sometimes-violent, 200-year struggle for the political and symbolic control of the city as told in “Variedades” – an interdisciplinary per¬for¬mance se¬ries that brings to¬gether music, spoken word, theater, comedy and the visual arts, loosely based on the Mexican vaude¬ville shows of early 20th century Los Angeles.

Season 9, Episode 5

In East Los Angeles during the late 1960s and 1970s, a group of young activists used creative tools like writing and photography as a means for community organizing, providing a platform for the Chicano Movement in the form of the bilingual newspaper/magazine La Raza. In the process, the young activists became artists themselves and articulated a visual language that shed light on the daily life, concerns and struggles of the Mexican-American experience in Southern California and provided a voice to the Chicano Rights Movement.

Season 9, Episode 6

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